US charity World Central Kitchen said Saturday, November 30, it was "pausing operations in Gaza at this time" after an Israeli air strike hit a vehicle carrying its workers.
The Israeli army previously confirmed that it had killed a WCK employee who it said was a "terrorist" who had taken part in militants' October 2023 attack on southern Israel. WCK said in a statement it "had no knowledge that any individual in the vehicle had alleged ties to the October 7 Hamas attack."
The Israeli military confirmed that a Palestinian employee of the US charity World Central Kitchen (WCK) was killed Saturday after Gaza rescuers announced the deaths of three aid workers following an Israeli air strike.
The army said in a statement that the worker was a "terrorist" who "infiltrated Israel and took part in the murderous October 7 massacre in Kibbutz Nir Oz" and "worked for the WCK organisation".
Representatives from the Israeli military unit responsible for overseeing humanitarian needs in Gaza "demanded senior officials from the international community and the WCK administration to clarify the issue and order an urgent examination regarding the hiring of workers who took part in the October 7 massacre", the statement said.
The charity has yet to comment on the Gaza civil defence agency's earlier statement that three Palestinian WCK workers were killed in the strike, or the allegations from the army.
Earlier Saturday, civil defence agency spokesman Mahmud Bassal told Agence France-Presse (AFP) the bodies of "at least five dead were transported (to hospital), including the three employees of World Central Kitchen. "All three men worked for WCK and they were hit while driving in a WCK jeep in Khan Yunis," Bassal said, adding that the vehicle had been "marked with its logo clearly visible."
The Israeli army, in an earlier statement, had insisted its strike in the main southern city hit "a civilian unmarked vehicle and its movement on the route was not coordinated for transporting of aid."
In April, an Israeli air strike killed seven WCK staff – an Australian, three Britons, a North American, a Palestinian and a Pole. Israel said it had been targeting a "Hamas gunman" in that strike, but the military admitted a series of "grave mistakes" and violations of its own rules of engagement.